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March 4, 2019

Six Success Tips from Real Estate Trainer Joe Klock

Tip #1 - Stop Reading News Into the Headlines

In much of the mainstream media, doom-and-gloom journalists are having a field day with public opinion. Make it your business (because it IS your business, after all!) to separate fact from opinion and reality from speculation. Your job and that of your team is, as it always has been, to seek out people with problems and sell them on the best solution available.

The pundits would have you believe that YOU are in trouble because "things" are bad and might even get worse. That's like telling medical professionals to go into a panic mode because they have sick patients.

The truth is that THEY (your prospective customers) are the ones who have problems and who are in need of your help in dealing with them. There will always be (as there always have been) enough of such people in any market to provide you with unlimited opportunities for success. You probably won't find them in the old familiar places, which is exactly where future failures will be looking for them, but (as we've frequently preached in these newsletters):

Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you! Didn't we also read that somewhere else?

Tip # 2 - 'All the World's a Stage' Shakespeare said it and YOU perform on one every day of your life.

Your audiences are those you live with, work with, interact with and serve - and all of them judge you on the basis of your skill as an actor (forget about the "real you" - it's their perception that counts!) It makes nothing but sense, then, for you to project your best image from the time the curtain goes up each morning until (one hopes) the applause subsides at day's end.

Great performances don't just "happen," either in the theater or the marketing world. They are the result of painstaking preparation and practice. In the selling business, that means either polishing your techniques in the win-all-or-lose-all environment of the firing line (where the stakes are unacceptably high) or in the can't-lose environment of role-playing.

Here's an action plan for right now, both for you AND your sales team: Go to the home page of the Real Estate Professional and double-click on "Sales & Marketing Methods" along the left margin. There you'll find an article (by my favorite author), entitled "Role Play Your Way To A Fortune." Those who follow the steps listed there WILL get rave reviews after every performance and move toward star billing on the production board! SUGGESTION: Bookmark the REP home page and visit it once a month. (You just can't beat the price!)

Tip #3 - Get This Message to Your Sellers

"If your home has been on the market for several weeks and is not attracting the attention of prospective buyers, it is OVERPRICED! Unless you are willing to adjust your price and/or sweeten the terms, you should seriously consider taking it off the market."

SPECIAL OFFER: To help you get that word to your sellers through your team members, we're marking down our "Facts Of Life" CDs to $4 per copy in "Bakers Dozen" boxes of 13. This 25-minute audio presentation "tells it like it is" to sellers who are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for "things" to get better. Details at www.joeklock.com

Comparisons, no matter how objective you try to make them, open the door to emotional, subjective, personal and often combative evaluations on the part of the owners.

This can evoke such passionate (and irrelevant) arguments as "Oh, but our property is UNIQUE!" and/or "But that home doesn't have a bird-bath on the front lawn (or whatever) and ours DOES!" In the present environment, past sales may bear no resemblance to present reality in many (if not most) markets.The proper word to use is COMPETITIVE.

The similar properties currently on the market are COMPETING for the attention of that one best buyer who will offer the best price obtainable - and the sellers must be constantly aware of this. Therefore, the important "comps" are COMPETITIVE properties, even though your seller's home may qualify as an "incomparable" palace.

Likewise, the data you present to the sellers must always be called a COMPETITIVE (never "Comparative") MARKET ANALYSIS. This emphasizes the fact - and it IS a fact - that your seller's property must challenge the competition in order to locate and attract the interest of those best buyers. It is they - the prospective buyers - who make comparisons in the highly COMPETITIVE market place.

Putting it in your own words - and keeping it both friendly and informal - ask them these basic questions:

Overall, how satisfied were you with our services?

In what specific ways could we have done a better job for you?

What things did we do that was most helpful to you?

Would you recommend our services to a friend?

If not, why not? (Please be frank!)

Include a self-addressed and stamped (not metered!) envelope for their convenience in responding and make a diary note to call them if they haven't replied within three weeks. Benefits to you include:

A possible source of written material for your "brag book," to be shown to future prospects.

An opportunity to mend fences (and build future referrals) if something went wrong during the course of the transaction.

Helpful hints about the effectiveness of your present policies, procedures and attitudes - as well as clues about how you might further capitalize on your strong points and "clean up your act" where necessary.

As you've heard many times in the past, people care less about how much you know than they do about knowing how much you care - and asking for their evaluation shows them that you really do!

Tip #6 - Take That Mail and Stuff It!

One of the more common questions directed to table servers is "Does it come with the meal?" Most diners are scrupulous about getting what they pay for, and this characteristic may serve you well at the mailbox.

Make sure that every piece of outbound business mail gets "stuffed" with a brochure or flyer that builds either future business or present goodwill.That impressive first-class postage you're paying these days can "come with" more than just a one-page letter.

Take the opportunity to spread the good word about what your company does, has done and /or is willing to do for the recipient. If you don't think it's profitable, check out the piggybacks in your incoming mail from the "big guys" you deal with. Never overdo it to the extent that your letter gets buried in a "paper slide," but always make that postage do at least double duty!

Joe Klock is the author of the 432-page collection of sales tips, The Real World of Selling Real Estate. World-renowned trainer Tom Hopkins says, "The wit and wisdom of Joe Klock is a great tool to lift you up as you face the daily challenges of the wonderful world of real estate sales."